Not Set In Stone
by bleeding.fire.raiah
Summary: What happens when you discover that everything you thought was right turns upside down? That is the case for Harry Potter. Truths come out in the open and only with the help of friends will he be able to face his destiny. But is his destiny set in stone?
1. Chapter 1

A/N- This is my first fanfic everyone!! I hope you like it. Sorry about any mistakes. I don't have a beta so... Have fun and tell me what you think please.

Disclaimer- I do not own any of the characters you may know.

Harry looked out the small window in his small bedroom at Privet Drive. The rain was a calming noise to his anxious brain. Harry was not sure exactly what but he knew that something was most definitely not right. It had been two weeks since he had come back to the Dursley's for summer vacation. It had been two weeks and a half since his godfather, his most trusted adult figure, had died in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic.

Last week Harry had started to feel weird. His head had suddenly felt like it had been ripped open; it was not the kind of pain that he experienced when his scar would hurt, no, this pain was even worst. He had felt it throughout his whole head. The pain had only lasted about two minutes but it had been enough; he had had to spend the rest of the day laying in bed because he could not find the strength in himself to move.

Then just yesterday Harry had felt a ticklish sensation in his chest. It had started in his chest but it had slowly moved throughout his whole body. The feeling had lasted until just a couple of hours ago and now he could not feel his body. It was as if he was not part of his body. If he thought hard enough he could get his limbs moving but it took a lot of effort and energy.

Just when Harry was contemplating this thought he felt as if a great weight had just been applied to his chest. The weight started traveling through his body at amazing speed until his whole body was under the weight. As soon as it began it stopped and once again Harry could feel his body. And with the feel of his body came a strong feeling of nausea.

Without a second thought Harry jumped up from the bed and made his way to the bathroom. Once he had discarded everything in his stomach he made his way to the mirror.

Harry looked the same as always. Messy uncontrollable short black hair, brilliant emerald green eyes that looked as through they had suffered too much to belong in the body of a fifteen soon to be sixteen year old boy, creamy white skin and too skinny for his own good.

Looking at his reflection for one more second Harry turned his back to the mirror and left the bathroom. He was feeling more energetic than he had felt all week. Unfortunately Harry had no way to burn his energy. Since his friends had threatened his relatives at the train station the Dursleys had decided that the best way to handle Harry without angering the 'freaks', as they called them, was to lock him in his room and only let him out to use the bathroom. For Harry this was not so bad, at least he did not have to face his relatives or do all the chores in the house.

Harry had written to the Order every three days as promised but none of them had replied. Harry decided not to think of his friends. Thinking of them only made him feel mad; they were doing the same thing that they did last year, leaving him isolated. If there was anything that Harry hated more than being stuck in this house it was to be left without news.

After all didn't he have the right to know what was going on? Wasn't he one of the most affected by what was going on in the wizarding world? Hadn't Dumbledore just told him that it was up to him to defeat the greatest Dark Wizard of their time? How o' how did they expect him to accomplish that when he did not even know what was happening around him?

Just thinking about this made Harry's blood boil with anger. He couldn't believe they were doing this to him again! Hadn't last year proved that leaving Harry without any news was a bad idea? In case Dumbledore had not noticed last year Harry had almost been expelled during the summer and worst of all he had gotten his godfather killed. Harry knew it was mainly his fault that Sirius had died but he couldn't help but think that if Dumbledore had told him of the prophecy sooner none of them would have gotten hurt.

Once again Harry decided to avoid that trail of thought. What happened happened and it was in the past. Harry gained nothing by thinking of what could have been. The reality was that Dumbledore had not told him and he had gotten his godfather killed.

Harry was interrupted from his depressing thoughts by the voice of his uncle.

"BOY YOU BETTER GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!" by the sound of it his uncle was not happy. Wondering what he could have possibly done now to get his uncle into such a foul mood Harry slowly made his way down the stairs until he reached the front door.

He stopped dead in his track. Never in a million years would he had imagined that this was what had upset his uncle. Standing in the middle of the doorway was a young girl with bushy brown hair, hairy eyebrows, chocolate brown eyes and about an inch smaller than Harry, Hermione Granger, one of Harry's best friends at Hogwarts.

Before Harry could say anything his uncle started screaming at him. "What is the meaning of this boy? Have you not been writing to those freaky friends of yours? The only reason your aunt and I have let you take that ruddy owl of yours out of her cage was so that you could write!" his uncle was about to scream some more when Hermione helpfully interrupted.

"Sir, I'm sure there's and explication for all of this. May I please talk to Harry alone?" Hermione asked in her most polite voice. Vernon was about to respond when Aunt Petunia entered.

"As long as you stay in his room and don't cause any trouble you may stay a while." she said in a stern voice. Harry was a little shocked by his aunt's permission but decided that he would just go along with it.

"Thank you Mrs. Dursley." Hermione said. She had not moved and that was when Harry remembered his manners.

"Come on in Hermione." he said. He distinctly heard his uncle growling but he was not going to pay attention to him. Hermione went over to Harry and he silently led her to his room.

As soon as they were both inside the room and Harry had closed the door Hermione threw herself at him and hugged him for all she was worth. Harry awkwardly rubbed circles on her back when he noticed that she was crying on his shoulder.

"Hermione what's wrong? Please don't cry. Tell me what's wrong." Harry felt at a loss. He had no idea what to do. He had absolutely no experience with crying girls, well except for Cho, but that didn't count. Harry kept rubbing circles on Hermione's back until she had calmed down enough to stop crying and faced Harry.

"Oh Harry I'm so happy to see you." Hermione said as soon as she had released Harry.

"So am I Hermione but why exactly are you here?" Harry asked. Sure he had missed his bushy haired friend but he couldn't help but wonder what she was doing here.

"Harry why haven't you written to me? Why have you not answered none of my letters? I've written to you at least half a dozen times and you have not answered a single letter." Hermione said now glaring at him as through it was his fault that she had been so worried.

But Harry had no idea why his letters had not reached Hermione. He had written letters to both Ron and Hermione every three days. And what did Hermione mean when she said she had written to him? He had not received a letter all summer.

"Err… Hermione I have written to you. I've written every three days. You are the one who hasn't sent me a letter. In the two weeks I've been here I have not received a single letter from none of you. Not Ron, not Remus, not you, no one." Harry was sure that his voice contained an ounce of accusation in his voice. He had not meant to but it was nearly impossible to hide the hurt he felt when he thought his friends had abandoned him.

"Impossible Harry, I have written to you every couple of days. I have received no letters from you. I received a letter from Ron a couple of days ago telling me that he had heard from you and that you were okay but I have heard nothing from you. I started to get worried because you usually keep your promises and you promised us that you would write. I was worried something had happened to you."

Harry did not like the sound of this. This had to mean that someone was intercepting Harry's mail to Hermione and Hermione's mail to Harry.

"Hermione I think someone intercepted our mail. If you wrote to me and I wrote to you and neither of us received the letters that must mean that someone is obviously intercepting our letters to each others. You got Ron's letter and Ron got mine so that means the problem is between you and me." Harry said. At once Hermione's eyes widened.

"Harry, it could be anyone! It could be a Death Eater!" Hermione exclaimed. Harry at once covered her mouth with his hand. He did not want either his uncle or aunt coming into his room and forcing Hermione to leave.

"Sorry, I just don't want my relatives to kick you out." Harry explained once he released Hermione's mouth. "Hermione I don't think Death Eaters are behind this. If it were Death Eaters they would surely intercept my letters to Ron, wouldn't they?"

Hermione took a second to think this over before answering Harry. "If it's not Death Eaters then who could it be?" she asked suspiciously.

"I have no idea." Harry answered. They fell into silence both thinking about who could possibly be intercepting their mail.

After fifteen minutes of the two teenagers absorbed in their own thoughts Harry decided to change the subject into a lighter topic.

"Hermione how did you get here?" he asked her.

"My parents dropped me off. They said they would come and pick me up when I call them." Hermione answered looking around Harry's small bedroom. Hermione had been told the year before last by her parents that she was adopted. It really did not make a difference in their relationship, Hermione loved them as if they were her true parents and the loved Hermione as if she was their flesh and blood.

Suddenly Harry remembered the occurrence of the past week. All thoughts of what had happened lately had been forgotten by the arrival of Hermione but now they came back and Harry wanted to ask the smartest witch of her age if she knew anything that could cause that.

"Hermione do you happen to know what could cause a massive headache and then shortly after that a ticklish sensation in your body followed by a great weight throughout your whole body and then you feel a burst of energy?" if anybody would know it would be Hermione, Harry was sure of that.

Hermione gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. At once Harry grew worried.

"Oh Merlin, Hermione what is it? It's really bas isn't it? Is it fatal? Oh God, I'm going to die before I can destroy Voldemort!" yes, Harry was panicking.

"Harry" when Harry ignored her lost in his own thoughts of his death due to an illness Hermione tried again. "Harry!"

This time Harry heard her. "What?" he asked with a panicky look in his face.

"I don't know if you are going to die." Hermione explained.

"What do you mean? Then why did you act like that?" Harry asked now slightly more rational.

"Because Harry, those symptoms that you just described…. I had them… I had them this past week. I was going to ask you if you knew what could cause them. I'm sorry for scaring you, it's just that I was surprised." Hermione said in an apologetically tone of voice.

"So I won't die?" Harry asked.

"Not that I know of." Hermione responded.

Harry breathed a sigh of belief. "Thank Merlin"

"Yes, but Harry, why would you and I have the same symptoms?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"I don't know. Did Ron tell you anything about having any of this symptoms?" Harry asked, he was not worried no more. At least he knew that whatever he had was not deathly.

"No, I wrote to him and he told me he had never heard of anything like this and that he was not experiencing these symptoms." Hermione explained.

This did not sound good to Harry. Why were Hermione and him the only ones who seemed to be having this mysterious disease?

"Hermione, what are you doing tomorrow?" Harry asked out of nowhere.

"Well… I have nothing to do. Why?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"I was thinking that we could go to Diagon Alley and look for books about illnesses. Or ask around." Harry suggested. He was not such a huge fun of books as Hermione but Harry had to admit that he liked to read. In fact in primary school Harry was one of the smartest kids of his class.

"That's a great idea Harry but do you think your relatives will let you?" Hermione answered worriedly. Hermione may not know all the details of his 'family' life, but she did know the gist of it. It was not good.

"Yeah… even if they say no I'll go." Harry answered trying to placate Hermione.

"Oh Harry." Hermione exclaimed. Then she went quiet for a few seconds before speaking once more. "Harry if my parents come and pick you up would they let you?"

Harry thought this over. In one hand Hermione's parents were muggles. The problem was that the Dursleys had seen them in the train station picking him up. And honestly Harry did not want anyone to meet the Dursleys and even suspect the way he was treated. But Harry did not want to offend Hermione and tell her no.

"It's worth a try." he decided. Hermione smiled.

"Great, so at what time should we be here?" she asked.

"Don't your parents work?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"They don't work tomorrow. So at what time?" Hermione answered.

"Whenever you can." Harry answered.

"Is ten alright?" it looked to Harry as through Hermione was really excited to go to Diagon Alley.

"Sure." Okay maybe Harry was not so excited.

"It's settled then. So Harry what have you been up to?"

"Nothing really." Harry answered. He had literally been doing nothing except sitting on his bed.

"Have you done your homework?" Hermione asked accusingly as through she already knew the answer was 'no'.

"Err… not exactly." Harry said. How was he supposed to do his homework when his uncle had locked his trunk in the cupboard under the stairs?

"Harry school is really important. If you don't do your homework you'll never pass this coming year." Hermione scolded him.

Harry rolled his eyes. Some things never changed.

"You know you'll make a great teacher one day." Harry said with a grin on his face.

"I am not going to be a teacher." Hermione answered with a scowl on her face. "I do not have the patience to deal with a two hundred Ron's."

Harry laughed. Every time he mentioned that Hermione would make a great teacher she would get all defensive.

"Don't laugh. You'll one day make a great Healer." Hermione retorted. At once Harry stopped laughing.

"There's no way I'm going to be a Healer. You know how much I hate the Hospital Wing." Harry said.

"Yes but you know what they say… 'there's a thin line between love and hate'." Hermione answered with a smug smile.

"Ha ha" Harry laughed.

"Oh you know you love me." Hermione stated.

"Can't fool you can I?" and it was true Harry loved Hermione like the sister he never had.

Hermione was about to answer when Uncle Vernon's voice came from downstairs.

"Boy get down here and bring you're little friend with you!" he screamed.

Harry looked apologetically at Hermione before leading her downstairs. When they reached the floor landing it was to see Hermione's parents in the door way.

"I guess this is when I leave." she hugged Harry one more time. "I'll see you tomorrow okay?"

"Definitely." Harry responded with a small smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N- Thanks to everyone who reviewed!! This chapter is slightly shorter than the first. This is not a HHR story, they are only friends, more like brother and sister.**

**Disclaimer- I do not own anything.**

At precisely ten in the morning Hermione and her parents arrived at Harry's relatives' house. Harry was already waiting for them in the doorsteps. Uncle Vernon had gone to work and Aunt Petunia and Dudley had gone shopping for the day and had told Harry that if he was leaving he would stay outside all day.

Harry had been sitting on the doorsteps since seven in the morning.

As soon as the car was in front of the house Harry stood up. Hermione came out from the back seat and motioned for Harry to come forward.

"Mom, dad this is Harry Potter." Hermione introduced him. It seemed weird that after five years of knowing Hermione he had yet to meet her parents. "Harry these are my mom and dad."

"Pleasure to meet you dear." Mrs. Granger, who had just stepped out of the car, said shaking his hand.

"The pleasure is mine." Harry replied. "I've heard a lot about you from Hermione."

"So have we." Mr. Granger said also getting out of the car. "Hermione talks a great deal about you young man."

Harry blushed and Hermione laughed. "Not in that way silly." she said.

Harry blushed harder. "Oh I know. You reserve that kind of way for Ron, don't you?" he teased her.

Hermione blushed redder than Harry "Why you little-"

She was cut off by Mr. Granger. "Harry we were wondering if we could speak with your family?"

"Err… well they are not here right now but if you want I'm sure they will be here when we come back." Harry answered.

Mrs. Granger looked worried. "You've been here all alone a while?" she asked with the same concerned voice as Hermione used.

"No Mrs. Granger. My aunt left only about fifteen minutes ago." Harry lied convincingly. Well as least someone who did not know him well would believe him. Unfortunately for him Hermione could read him like and open book and she saw through his pathetic lie. She looked at him with disapproval.

"Oh… okay then. Shall we go?" Mr. Granger asked.

"Sure thing Dad." Hermione answered and all of them got into the car. Twenty five minutes later they arrived at Diagon Alley.

"Hermione, you're mother and I will be shopping in the mall for some things that we need in the house. Here's some money. We'll see you at five okay?" Mr. Granger said when they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron; of course neither of Hermione's parents could see it.

"Yes dad. Thanks dad." Hermione said giving both of her parents a kiss on the cheek before stepping out the car.

"Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Granger." Harry said stepping out the car.

"It was nothing. Have fun you two." Mr. Granger said.

As soon as Hermione's parents left she turned to Harry with a glare worthy of Snape himself. At once Harry took a step back. If there was anything scary in this world it was an enraged Hermione.

"Exactly how long had you been stuck outside?" she asked.

"Not long." Harry tried. Hermione was having none of that.

"Since when?" she asked once again.

Harry could see no way out of this. Once Hermione got an idea in her head it was nearly impossible to persuade her to let it go. "Since about seven this morning."

"Have you had breakfast at least?" she asked him now with a sad look as through she already knew he hadn't.

"No." Harry answered simply. When he saw that the busy haired girl was about to order him to eat he quickly tried to placate her. "Hermione I'm not hungry. We'll eat an early lunch if you want to but can we just go shopping now?"

Seeing the pleading look in Harry's eyes Hermione gave in. "Okay, where do we go first?"

"I have to go to Gringotts and so do you so how about we start there?" Harry asked.

"Yes, lets go." Hermione said. When they were about to enter the Leaky Cauldron Hermione stopped Harry. "Let's do something about that scar of yours." she then proceeded to try and get Harry's hair to lie down at the front so that his scar was not visible. After seven minutes of battling with Harry's hair Hermione finally managed to get Harry's hair to cover his scar.

"How did you do that? I've been trying that all my life and nothing ever worked." Harry said in awe.

"It's still a mess I just manipulated it to be a mess my way." Hermione stated as through this was the most obvious thing in the world. Harry rolled his eyes at his best friend.

"Let's go." he said leading the way into the crowded pub. It looked a through even with the threat of Voldemort people still drank as through they had no worries.

As soon as he was in pub the people all around turned to look at him. Without giving them a chance to approach him Harry dragged Hermione out of the pub.

When they were out in the Alley Harry made his way directly to Gringotts. He accompanied Hermione to change the money her parents have given her into gallons. Then both of them made their way to Harry's vault. Harry did not want to separate in case anything happened.

Half and hour after they entered the bank they left it.

"Where are we going first?" Harry asked Hermione.

"To Flourish and Blotts." Hermione answered leading him into the bookstore.

The bookstore was empty. This soon into the holidays no one was out shopping for Hogwarts' books.

Harry and Hermione made their way into the section labeled 'illnesses and healing'.

"Harry you search that side for any books that may help us and I'll search this side." Hermione instructed in a no-arguing-about-it tone of voice. There were two isles of books under this category.

Harry did as he was told and searched the other isle for any books that seemed helpful. There was _Common Illnesses in Children by Keil Johnson; _there was also_ A-Z all illnesses in the Wizarding World by Ana Tuner _and many more.

Harry sighed this was not going to be easy.

Harry and Hermione spent nearly two hours in the bookstore looking over books and trying to find nay that might help them. After the two hours of searching the two teenagers selected ten books that looked promising. One of them was the one by Ana Turner that Harry had seen.

After Harry had insisted on paying the two friends made their way to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. The pub was packed worst than this morning when they had come in.

"Harry, do you want me to order do you can pick a seat and get out of sight?" Hermione murmured. People were starting to realize that Harry Potter had entered the pub and Hermione did not want her friend in the spotlight any more than Harry himself.

"Don't worry Hermione, I'll go. You can pick a table and please one away from the bar." Harry responded. Hermione did as Harry told her and picked a table as far away from the bar as she could.

Harry walked over to the bar and ordered them both lunch. He ignored everyone who tried to talk to him and went straight to his table. People were still staring at him and murmuring.

"Calm down." Hermione said noticing the look on her friends face. "Do you want to eat someplace else?"

"No. I promised you I would eat a big lunch and this is the only place near here." Harry responded. "Hermione after we eat where are we going?"

"I don't have a specific place in mind. I was thinking we could look around and see if anything catches our attention. Why do you have a specific shop in mind?" Hermione responded.

"Well I was thinking that if you don't mind we could go shopping for some clothes for me. I have no muggle clothes except the old ones from my cousin." Harry said awkwardly. He had never in his life gone shopping for clothes for himself, except to Madam Malkins but that had only been a couple of minutes and only five robes a year or so.

Hermione beamed at him. "I would love to. It's time you started to wear something that actually fits you." Hermione said.

The food arrived and they ate talking about what Hermione had been up to during the last two weeks. After they had both eaten their full they made their way to the only shop in town which sold muggle clothes.

Once they were actually doing the shopping Harry thought that his idea had not been so brilliant after all. Hermione seemed to be going a little overboard, giving him about twenty shirts and ten pairs of pants to try out. After Hermione was satisfied that Harry had enough shirts and pants, both formal and casual, she made Harry pick out underwear.

Harry was blushing the whole two minutes that it took him to find the first ten pair of boxers in his size that he could. Then Hermione moved on to buying socks and ties. And then the worst came; shoes.

Finally they were done. It was only an hour till five so Harry suggested that they go get an ice cream.

They were both eating their ice cream when people started screaming and running toward the Leaky Cauldron.

Looking around Harry quickly spotted why. Right behind the mob of people running toward the only exit from the alley where about a dozen Death Eaters sending spells right and left.

He did not even think about it. Harry stood up taking Hermione with him, pulled out his wand and started to lead his bushy haired friend toward an empty dark side alley trying to find safety.

The side alley was empty and completely dark even when it was still four.

"Harry we need to get out of here. If the Death Eaters see us, we're as good as dead." Hermione said in a slight hysterical voice.

"I know that Hermione." Harry commented. He was thinking of all the possibilities they had to escape unnoticed. There weren't many. The best he could think of was following the side alley and hoping it led them away from Voldemort's followers. "Come on Hermione; let's see if this side alley leads us to safety."

Hermione was a little taken aback by Harry's attitude. Harry had always been one to rush into things without thinking of all the possibilities. She had been expecting Harry to send her off to who knows where while he battled the Death Eaters.

But the truth was that Harry had done a lot of thinking during the two weeks since summer began. The reason Sirius was dead was because he had rushed to the Ministry without listening to Hermione. Harry had decided that he would not risk his friends in this battle.

Harry knew perfectly well that if he sent Hermione to safety while he stayed she would stay with him and put herself in danger. Harry did not want to take that risk, so instead he decided to go with her so that she would be safe.

Together they walked through the side alley until they found themselves facing a dead end.

Hermione felt like crying. Just perfect!

"Bloody wall." Harry murmured looking at the brick wall in front of them as through he could persuade it to move by just looking at it.

Before either of them could say anything else there was a loud 'pop' behind them. At once both of them turned around with their wands raised. Before they could utter a single curse the black robed, with masked figure hissed "expelliarmus" in a strangely familiar voice.

Harry did not have time to recall where he knew that voice from before the figure grabbed both his and Hermione's arm and apparated away.


End file.
